. . . Said the Joker to the Thief

All right, because I know it's been weighing heavy on everyone's mind I, thanks to everyone's favourite Goonie, now have information to share about the cover of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" from the season finale of BSG.

The man responsible for scoring/rearranging/whatever the tehmical term is is Bear McCreary and the singer is his brother Brendan, known professionally as Bt4. The guitar player was Steve Bartek from Oingo Boingo (bet you never thought you hear that name again, eh?) . . . actually if you go to Bear's site and check out his Blog entry about it there's loads of information that I didn't read beyond who was the singer . . . now to go 'find' me a copy of this song.

And the BSG fanboys (I know who I are . . . I mean who you are, yeah that's the ticket) will be happy to hear that Starbuck has won the Chicago Tribune's Best Character on Television fan voting contests. Never underestimate the Internet voting power of pasty basement dwellers.

And because July 4 is quick approaching I know everyone is eagerly awaiting the release of the live action Transformers Movie . . . well I don't have the movie, but here are the posters, well they're more like teaser posters, but pretty good none the less. In other Transformers news according to this article none other than Mr. Hugo Weaving aka Agent Smith (from the Matrix) aka Elrond (from LotR) will be voicing Megatron in the movie. Although Weaving has a very distinct voice right now I'm thinking that I'm going to be expecting him to say "Mr. Anderson" at the end of every line . . . I know half the time in the LotR series of films I was expecting Elrond to do that or at least say "Mr. Baggins".

Since we're talking LotR, here's some news for you. It looks like Tolkien Jr has finished his Dad's last unfinished book. I hope Jr is brilliant because his Dad was an amazing writer responsible for some of the best fantasy stories of the last century and is basically the father of modern fantasy . . . and a strong influence on the shaping of the Dungeons & Dragons game . . . especially back in the red book days (I think I still have my red books somewhere . . . I'm sooo-oh cool). I probably won't bother trying to read this book, I loved The Hobbit and the LotR series, but I tried to read some of his other stuff (the Silmarillion especially) and couldn't do it. Too much of a mental work out I suppose.

And one final note, since Holy Week (feel free to insert your own Palm Sunday joke here) is coming and Easter is right around the corner, I thought I'd share this little tidbit. Did you know that according to Des Pascha Comutus, written in 243 CE, Jesus Christ's birthday was March 28. It later became the familiar December 25 after Rome changed it in 336. See other entries on the Church yoinking pagan holidays for their own.

That's more than enough for now, I got some real world stuff that needs doing.

I'm leavin' on a prop plane . . .

Don't know when I'll be back again . . . I'm off to Wunnumin Lake this morning for the day, for work, not fun in case you wondering. The weather has been pretty wonky lately so there's a better than usual chance (in my humble opinion and I've been doing this for almost nine years now (wow how time flies) so I think I've got a decent idea of such things) of a flight being cancelled along the way.

Ah well wish me luck.

this post will honestly be short because I've got to get going, but check out this Grindhouse from the same guy who brought you this wicked cool review of the movie 300. I wanted to see both of these films before reading these reviews but man if these reviews didn't put it over the top for me.

And with that I bid you a fond farewell.

Stay gold.

There must be some kinda way out of here . . .

Wow, who watched (how's that for some unintentional alliteration?) the season finale of BSG last night? What a great episode, now the only shitty deal is that I have to wait until the fall to see where it goes from there. And of course there are questions, what are the four new Cylons going to do, is Starbuck the fifth and final Cylon, who did the cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" (although I'm more familiar with Jimi Hendrix's cover) at the end of the ep and do I take TV too seriously?

On an up note according to this article Sci-Fi has signed BSG for 22 more episodes, up from 13, and are going to be airing a 2 hour 'event' in the fall. I hope that Space runs it as well.

Since I mentioned a cover song up there, and man do I love cover songs, check out the creepiest cover of 'Close to You' ever. It's from the Neil Gaiman co-written movie "MirrorMask". If you haven't seen it check it out, it's very good and kinda strange - Gaiman is a great writer, he hasn't disappointed me yet. Well worth watching for sure.

And since we're talking music, it looks like alternative rock cult legends Dinosaur Jr are touring again, including a stop at the Garrick Centre in Winnipeg on Monday May 28. I'm surprised to see this, after all it's been ten years since their last release . . . I'll have to see if I can't track down a copy of their new record for a test listen. The Garrick (a converted movie theatre) is a great place to see a show and Dinosaur Jr were good enough to have a couple records released on the Black Flag founded SST record label and to appear on the Judgement Night soundtrack with Del tha Funkee Homosapien.

I wonder what the crowd at this show would look like? Aging rock geeks with thick rimmed glasses and Doc Martens lost in a sea of plaid? I think it would be worth checking out, anyone interested?

We'll I'm going to say that if you haven't read or listened to Henry Rollins' journals from his time with Black Flag "Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag" you really should. It's a great read/listen and even though I'm a fan, I was surprised at the life that one of the most important American hardcore punk bands lived.

One last bit of info; I was told that because of my hard hitting coverage of the Sioux Lookout vs Wiki/Local Business Directory battle I was linked here from the National Post (or was it the Globe and Mail?). Anyway I haven't found the article with the link to here, but I did find this article (even if they did get the name of the town wrong in the title). If anyone can find the linking article please send it along. Who knew I was famous?

Now I'm going to get disconnected.

Spirited Energy

As you may or not be aware Manitoba has a Spirited Energy campaign going on to promote the province. Well in the past few days I've been sent a couple videos that I don't think will make this promotion, one which has since been removed from YouTube, but showed a we'll say innovative gentlemen caught being caught short on a surveillance camera at the Winnipeg Square and using one of the potted trees as an emergency toilet and this one showing a brawl at the 2005 Winnipeg Oktoberfest.

Don't get me wrong, Winnipeg is still One Great City . . . just ask the Weakerthans.

Now in something that I think is completely un-Winnipeg related, check out episode one of the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. For some reason I really enjoyed that video and now I want my own Wheel of Fun.

And here's a story that sounds like it could be from rural Manitoba, but it comes to us via the UK; apparently this bloke owned farmland deemed as 'greenbelt' and as such couldn't build on it, so he did what anyone would and built himself a three bedroom bungalow hidden behind hay bales in a barn. Since you're reading about it you can guess he was found out and you'll never guess what the council wants him to do with his home. I guess it's not always easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission . . . . but you gotta admire the ingenuity of a farmer.

And here's one final sweet item for you - a scale replica of the Battle of Helms Deep, from J R R Tolkein's The Two Towers, made entirely out of candy.

Well I'm off to go talk to the hot dog, I hear it can read my mind . . . or go to the ice fishing derby and hopefully win my ass $1000.

Heart Attack! Heart Attack Man!

Everybody knows that bacon (everything's better with bacon), cheese, hot dogs (okay that's pushing it) and deep fry are awesome right? Well someone got the brilliant idea of combining these all into one delicious taste treat. You can check it out here, be warned just looking at the pictures will spike your cholesterol levels a few points.

I don't think I'll make them myself, but if you do let me know and I'll help you taste test them. Perhaps with Fried Oreos for dessert?

Since we're talking food, it's the end of an era, England's most famous of all brown sauces, HP Sauce, isn't going to be made in England anymore. In a cost savings measure brand owners Heinz are moving production from Birmingham to the Netherlands. Here's an article from the Sun if you're interested. Imagine your home town saturated with the smell of HP Sauce? I like the stuff but that might be a little much . . . although it's got to be better than the pulp mill in downtown Shelbyville.

And since I mentioned Heinz up there, how about celebrating your next big occasion with custom labelled ketchup bottles? I think that would be cool, but when would you need a whole whack of custom labelled ketchup bottles? Shit when wouldn't you . . .

Well that's enough food talk for now, onto the movies. Here's the official Stardust movie site. I'm sure I've flogged this movie here before, but it's based on an awesome Neil Gaiman book (is there any other kind?) of the same title and hits theatres on August 10. This is movie I will definitely be seeing, it's a really good story and there's a load of big time actorbs in it.

I'm hoping that this movie does well and is a well done so that other Gaiman stories get flipped to the big screen. It's a wait & see I suppose.

One last bit, here's Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies. Although it's not a bad list, if you're into movies it will surely bring back some nice remembrances, but I can't say that I agree with all the picks, but who ever does? I have to say that I think it's wicked, and more than a little surprising, that Rock 'n' Roll High School broke the top 20; but I do think that Election (if you haven't seen it watch it, it's awesome) and American Graffiti should have scored higher on the list . . . and putting the Breakfast Club in at number one (hope I didn't spoil the fun of reading the list for you) was a little predictable . . . but not a bad choice either.

But as always just one man's opinion.

In case you're wondering I did the CBC Test the Nation quiz online last night . . . have you played yet? If you tell me how you did, I'll let you know my score. Via email would prob be best, eh?

Sorry nothing bad about Sioux Lookout this time; maybe next time.

I'm running off the rails on a crazy train . . .

For those of you who might not know today is the 25th anniversary of the death of Ozzy Osbourne guitarist, and founding member of Quiet Riot, Randy Rhoads. Mr. Rhoads was killed on the Diary of a Madman tour after the plane he was flying in buzzed the band's tour bus and clipped the wing of the plane, then crashing into a nearby farmhouse.

Today is also the 17th anniversary of the heroin overdose of influential, and often forgotten, Seattle band Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood. More proof for the heroin might be bad for me, but it's great for my record collection argument.

Here's a little trivia for you, a couple of the guys from Mother Love Bone (Stone Gossard & Jeff Ament) went onto form another Seattle band, that you're all probably a little more familiar with, Pearl Jam . . . everyone's favourite band named after a bodily fluid.

Did anyone watch the CBC's Test the Nation last night? How'd you do? I have to say that I wasn't too suprised with the outcome . . . I mean I would want my Doctor to be smart and you'd expect that if a person was self made millionaire they'd have to be somewhat intellegent, right?

I meant to watch and play along, but I forgot about it being on, so I missed most of it, watched some of it . . . you can still take the test on line at the CBC website, see the link I posted at the start of this paragraph, so I might do that just to see how I stack up.

And since we're sorta on the topic . . . ever wonder how you're Doctor stacks up, how they're liked or people's opinions of them? Well wonder no longer, thanks to the Rate MDs website you can check all that out and leave your own comments. My Doctor is on there, is your's? And here's the guy who put the screws in my ankle a couple years ago.

Well I think that's all for all now . . . got to get ready for and shovel a little . . . is it still snowing? Check the weather - link at the side.

And I am outta here!

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Fuckin' A rights I am!

So I watched about 2/3's of that show last night on FOX and it was like watching "Who Wants to be a Special Needs Millionaire" or something. The two contestants that I saw were just too much . . . or way not enough. I'm thinking that they are screening their contestants by only taking the ones who do poorly on the elligibility exam or something, it was brutal. But I have to admit that if the show had contestants who were just firing through the questions no problems the show wouldn't be very entertaining . . . and cost a whole lot in prize money.

Basically it just made me frustrated watching it . . . I guess I will just have to get my trivia fix elsewhere, eh? Like here, think you can which titles are Clint Eastwood movies and which are gay porn films? I got one wrong myself . . . I guess that means I either have to watch more gay porn or more Eastwood movies. For some reason I already think I know which one I'd prefer.

Oh before I forget happy St. Urho's Day to you.

If you're not familiar with this most sacred of Finnish holidays, St. Urho is the Patron saint of Finnish vineyard workers. Attributed to him is the miracle of banishing grasshoppers from Finland which he accomplished with a few choice Finnish phrases, thereby saving the season's grape crop. But in reality a bunch of very drunk people made this up in 1956. Very drunk Finns, what are the odds?

And one last piece of information for you, because I know how important this is; the USPS has changed their rules for mailling live chickens. Yes you read that right, changed . . . that means they used to allow it, but now are stricter about how you can go about doing it.

Now you can only send your live chickens via Express Mail and must conform to the standards in International Safe Transit Association Test Procedure 1A. Click this link and scroll down to section 9.3.5 for further details. Crazy eh? Now I want to see if Canada Post will let me mail live chickens too.

But should I be suprised? No I mean after all the USPS did have to pass a law saying that you couldn't mail your kids. To me that says that there were enough people doing it that it became enough of problem to warrant their being specific legislation. I can't find the link at the moment, but I'll dig it up and post it when I do.

PS - Happy 58th Birthday Erik Estrada!

Late Breaking Story on the CBC

Well the local TV guide fiasco has hit a new high, or low depending on how you look at it, it has made the CBC website. You can read the CBC's article here. If you bothered to read the local paper's article on this you'll note that the CBC's version has more actual information in it, but only I gave you the links to the actual Wikipedia pages in question.

Here's to you Sioux Lookout Bulletin and your strict no controversy & investigative reporting rules.

But enough of that, now onto something important . . . funeral plans. I had thought I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted my funeral to be like, but after seeing Strongbad's funeral plans in his latest email I think that I may have some reconsidering to do. I wonder where I can get a big enough Mason jar.

Since we're talking funerals, we might as well talk headstones too. Check out these Russian Mafia headstones. Pretty amazing, eh? I think I want a headstone for my car now too.

Here's something for the trivia lovers in the room - the 30 Most Interesting Deaths in History. I think that overall the moral of these stories is that unchecked infections are bad, soap, water and antiseptic good. I found Jack Daniel's story to be particularly interesting . . . in fact I was thinking about going into work early this morning, but now I'm not going to for fear it will kill me; and none of us want that. Especially since I haven't been able to source a large enough Mason jar yet.

Well that's enough for today, later gators.

Sioux Lookout vs Wiki Update

Looks like the Sioux Lookout Wikipedia page received another group of revisions last night; one at 1:28 AM that if you found what was printed on the backs of the TV guides offensive this one will make your brain explode inside your head, but no need to worry the entry was cleaned up by 5:03 AM. Methinks I'm going to have to keep an eye on this highly volatile Wiki entry for a while to see what else people write about my loverly little town.

Let's just hope that these revision aren't coming from the Town Hall itself . . . what's that you say? No one would be that dumb? Well you'd think so but read here about a Federal Government Official in the Northwest Territories sending out a less than appropriate joke email about selecting the next Miss NWT from his Government email account to people in and out of the Government. Someone couldn't laugh it off and sent the email to the CBC and now they're after his head.

Let that be a lesson to those of you who may be using your work email accounts for such purposes; sending a company email is pretty much the same thing as sending a letter on company letterhead now; be careful . . . or just go get a Hotmail account or HotMale if you prefer.

Well that's enough seriousness for now . . . ever wonder what would happen if you were the last hold out in the neighbourhood to sell out to a big time land developer? Well why don't you just ask this poor bastard here. Gotta love Shade-of-Red China eh?

And one last huge time waster, here's Rotten Tomatoe's List of the 100 Worst Reviewed Movies of All Time. I say time waster because it appears to slow kids like me that you've got to go through 100 pages as each movie has its own individual page (and don't forget the occasional ad page) . . . but if you're into movies it might be worth the cruise. Personally I've seen 24 of the movies on this list (and 3 were in the top - or bottom - 10) and enjoyed 8 of them.

And honestly there are 6 movies that I still want to see. I guess you'll think twice before accepting another movie recommendation from me, eh? Maybe they've got a list of the top 100 review movies so I can redeem myself a little . . . maybe.

Until next time, I'm Audi 5000.

Small Town Controversy

Anyone who reads our local weekly paper, the Sioux Lookout Bulletin, and everyone in town does every Wednesday, will have no doubt seen the article and ads condeming a printing company from Alberta, Sabre Publications Ltd, who printed up a bunch of TV guides or something like that for distribution in local hotel rooms in the last week's issue. If you perchance missed it check out the 'TV Guide and Business Directory Offends Local Readers' article at the link.

The controversy arose because there was supposed to be a bit of Sioux Lookout information printed on the back that was a little inflamatory. Well apparently this information was lifted from a Sioux Lookout Wikipedia page that was revised on January 27, 2007 and just plopped on the page layout without being read first. You can read the page for yourself here but if I had to guess the offending bit is this exerpt:

"The name of Sioux Lookout comes from a nearby mountain. Its full of drunks and a dirty little town. If you live in it move."

This is a fairly important example of the dangers of sloppy cut and paste action, wouldn't you say?

This offending bit of Sioux Lookout trivia was edited out in the next Wiki revison on January 29, 2007 . . . even if there are a number of people who agree, even partially, with those statements. With Wikipedia almost anyone can update or revise an article, and I guess that's what makes Wiki great and horrible all at once. Kinda like Galactus . . . but different.

If you're looking for a pro-Sioux Lookout website, check out the local Chamber of Commerce's . . . I'm sure they've got some nice things to say about the town and the Legend of Sioux Lookout interesting, check it out.

If you haven't been before the panoramic picture at the bottom of the page is one I took at the local beach, situated almost downtown (the one at the top definitely not Sioux Lookout). . . although I'd be saying if the whole of the town looked that good all the time, but it can't be that bad . . . I'm still here after all, eh?

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Are you ready to rock?

Well this morning I'm off to the 'Peg to see Lamb of God, Trivium, Machine Head and Gojira play at the Walker Theatre (well now it's the Burton Cummings Theatre or the "Burty" as the hip kids call it). The building doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's really quite awesome on the inside and it's a great place to see a show (1646 seat turn of the last century theatre) with an interesting history, but I'm a big geek so you might not think so.

The Walker is also the venue where I saw Motorhead (that was an awesome show, it was pretty amazing to be n the same room, granted it was a very large one, as one of the most important men in metal) play, along with Damn 13, 3 Inches of Blood and Corrosion of Conformity, and that was the same night that I developed my tinnitus.

But don't worry from what I've read tinnitus is not dangerous and there's nothing that can be done about it. Now I'm the guy at the rock shows with bright yellow pieces of foam stuck in his ears. Learn from my mistake on this one.

And since we're talking rock a cruise by a friend's blog earlier this morning brought to mind Apocalyptica. If you're not familiar with them imagine four cellos covering metal songs; for an example here they are covering Metallica's One. If you liked that one there are more of their videos to be watched at YouTube. They're pretty awesome and I'm not just saying that because I'm partial to the music they cover, but I'm sure that helps.

I found this article rather amusing and it brought back some memories. Messing with the new guy is a tradition that seems to be everywhere and go back forever. When I worked pumping gas at a garage in high school other part time guys were sent out for left handed pipe wrenches and cans of compression for engines and other classics like that. When I worked in maintenance at a hospital the older guys in the shop thought that they had pulled one over on the two summer guys making us dress up in all sorts of safety gear (everything from coveralls to goggles to respirators) and walk through the hospital to dump some clear line down a supposedly plugged toilet . . . it didn't bother us at all and they thought it was hilarious and I suppose we deserved it.

After all we did screw one guy's tools to his peg board on the wall and I did connect the department manager's truck horn to the turn signal so it would sound in blasts that matched the flash of the signal . . . good times.

And here's a warning to my pirate mates - be careful when speeding around with your parrot on your shoulder; this German guy just might lose his licence for it. And now some good news, or at least an item of interest, for the pirates in my life - what is believed to be Blackbeard's (aka Edward Teach aka Edward Thatch aka Edward Drummond) ship The Queen Anne's Revenge (not to be confused with the Flogging Molly song "Queen Anne's Revenge") is being completely excavated. Well shiver me timbers . . . you can read about it here me hearties.

And in some quasi pirate related news Mezco will be releasing a line of figures based on the classic piece of cinema that is The Goonies. You can read about the figures here and if this doesn't excite you then maybe you've grown up a little since 1985 or don't really understand that Goonies never die . . . right Derek? The line will feature Sloth, Mouth, Mickey, Data and Chunk.

In case you're wondering what your favourite Goon Docks residents are looking like now, well now-ish, here's a cast reunion photo from 2001.

Well I think that's enough for now. Until next time, you stay classy San Diego.

Meep Meep!

Check out this commercial for the 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner starring none other than the the Warner Brothers Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. In fact Dodge spent a load of money to make the horns on these cars sound like the Roadrunner in the cartoon.

Now it's no secret that I'm not a Mopar man, in fact if you cut me I'll bleed Chevy Orange, but I will admit that during the muscle car hey day Dodge built some bad ass automobiles.

There was no arguing with the 'Cuda, Charger (the General Lee was '69 Charger R/T), Challenger or the Daytona . . . in fact when I was going to College in Thunder Bay there was a Superbird that lived there, now that was cool seeing that. Hell there's no denying that the Hemi still hold special reverance for car guys (and gals) all over . . . why else does Dodge flog it so hard in their commercials.

Since we're on the topic, I loves me some newstalgia and I think Ford did it up right with last release of the Thunderbird (it looked best with the hard top with the portal windows on it in white . . . think I saw American Graffiti at an early age?) and did a pretty good job with the new Mustangs (but not as good as the TBirds) but man did Dodge blow it with the new Charger. It's a cool looking car, but as lame as the Charger got in the late '70's it never had four doors. They should have called this car something else instead of dragging a legendary name like Charger through the mud like that.

Now the new Challenger concepts are looking pretty awesome in my humble opinion. All I can say is at least Chevy isn't bringing back the Camaro as a front drive V6 grocery getter. Don't get me wrong I still get groceries in my Z28 (and I'm never late in my Z28) just not a whole lot of them at one time . . . but there is room for one cooler in the trunk . . . and only because I didn't order T-Tops.

Enough of the car talk for now, I'll leave with this awesome quiz, Boobs, Butt or Shoulder? It was harder than I thought it was going to be, which is pretty obvious since I scored a pitiful 9/20. I guess that means I've been grabbing at the wrong bits all this time?

Later

No Mr. Bond I Expect You to Die

If you haven't seen the latest Bond film "Casino Royale" you should really check it out. I think I've said that it's the best Bond film in a long time and that the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, is at least Sean Connery good . . . or he was in that film. In fact I think it's safe to say that for once I'm looking forward to another Bond movie coming out.

But what if you're really busy and don't have the two hours needed to watch Casino Royale let alone the 1157 other Bond movies? Well you're in luck. Now you can watch every Bond film ever reenacted by Bunnies in a bout half a minute by clicking here. If you liked that one there are more to watch here. But perhaps you prefer your movies reenacted by plush toys instead of bunnies. If so you're in luck (and a little strange for having a preference) because here's the movie Snatch reenacted by toys and here's Trainspotting. I think they're brilliant - both the original films and the toy based ones.

Snatch is pretty much a higher budget more Hollywood version of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Both are well worth watching and I don't think I'm saying that just because I'm a mark for almost anything British.

Trainspotting is a great movie and a great book by Irvine Welsh. But damn if it's not a hard read I don't know what is. The story is narrated by the characters and since it's set in Edinburgh each one has a wildly different accent and manner of speech and Welsh writes it how they'd speak. If you've seen the movie know what I'm talking about. Welsh is a good writer, I've read several of his books and enjoyed them all (gotta love the life of a Yob, eh?), but they're defo a mental work out.

Since we're talking movies, there's a big screen version of the TV Show Get Smart in the works. Steve Carell (I remember him when he just a correspondent on the Daily Show) will be playing Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway Agent 99. I think this one should be a winner the show was hilarious. Would you believe quite funny?

Anyway that's enough for today, later.